Paxton's 5th Birthday

Hello, hello, and ho ho ho!  We're getting close to the holidays, and I am very happy about that!  I'll be posting some Christmas items soon, but before I do, I wanted to share my layout highlighting Paxton's 5th birthday.  Not sure when he grew up so much!!

Tradition in our family dictates the person with the birthday chooses the birthday restaurant.  In Paxton's case, he saw a coupon come in from Rainforest Cafe, and from that day on, he KNEW that's where we were going.

We enjoyed lunch, and we had the big volcano dessert!  I don't think we finished it...it was HUGE.  We took some photos with the animals and of Paxton wearing his froggy eye hat.  To bring out the green in the photos, I decided to use Basic Grey's Bow Ties paper collection.  The Freeze Tag plaid pattern and Four Square black banner papers worked well.  I started with two sheets of CTMH Colonial White cardstock and after deciding where my photos were going to go, I used the Hazel & Ruby stencil-mask Broadside alpha to spell out "Happy" and the "TH" by the 5 (I cut my 5 with the CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge) in the top left and bottom right of my layout, respectively.

After the black Glimmer Mist was dry, I cut black cardstock and the Freeze Tag patter at an angle for the top of the left page.  

I layed out the patterned paper strips to see were I wanted them to cross the paper, trimmed them, and adhered them, adding little bits and strips to various places.

Next I used the gold side of the Four Square paper to mat two photos.  I adhered everything down and started to embellish - the fun part, don't you agree?!  I used:

- Heidi Swapp clear-pop tags
- Freckled Fawn Black Arrow paper clips
- CTMH Black buttons, Twilight ribbon, gems, brads, and Color-ready canvas alphas
- Studio Calico Classic Calico 3 Kraft Die-cut Frames
- Miscellaneous stamps
- Maya Road chipboard banners (covered with Basic Grey paper)

After everything was complete, I looked at the layout and decided that the "5" should be added back popped up, so I spritzed it with additional contrasting Juniper reinker mixed with water and used pop dots to adhere it. It's hard to see the green mist in the photo, but it looks really cool popped up!

I hope you enjoyed my layout, and I'd love for you to share it!  Have a wonderful, chocolate-filled holiday!!

Majken

Pretty, new bangs

Hello everyone-

Today I'm posting a two-page layout showcasing my daughter, who just recently got bangs for the first time.  She is so proud of them!  Scrapbook Circle's "My Favorite" kit was the basis for this layout, but I used a lot pieces from my stashes (yes, plural).  I really like Fancy Pants Design's Trendsetter collection in the kit and had some of my own pieces of that collection including the Patterned Photo Frames.  I started with some CTMH Champagne cardstock, and I spritzed CTMH Sorbet reinker and black Glimmer Mist in a diagonal and let it dry.

Next, I layered various patterned paper until I felt it looked right.  I balanced the layout by using the same paper on each page in different ratios.  I admit I used some elements from the previous Scrapbook Circle kit, "Happy Place" including AC's Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm paper and the Heidi Swapp mint alpha.

I covered chipboard stars with black cardstock and distressed the edges.  I ink-distressed the edges of some of the paper pieces.



I used some old CTMH black epoxy hearts, some gems from my stash, and the Maya Road Star Pins (love them!).

To tie the two pages together, I chose CTMH's wide Black Striped Grograin ribbon.  This was a very fun layout to make.

Thanks for visiting today!